Remember when ski boots were rear entry, skis were made from wood and snowboarding was cool? No, me neither. Well, not the first two anyway.

Today’s snow grommets won’t remember a time when you couldn’t check-in at your resort on Facebook, filter your snow pics with Hudson, Lo Fi and Nashville on instagram and film your snow skills (or lack of them) on a helmet cam before sharing them with a web of people you’ve never met.

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Old school skiers may say that it has taken the fun out of experiencing rather than documenting the moment, but try telling that to the media savvy skier or snowboarder. Because if it didn’t happen on social media then it didn’t happen.

I for one applaud social media. No longer do we have to rely on snow reports that clearly favour the resort distributing them to determine whether to go skiing this weekend, next week or even this season. Deciphering old news snow reports is akin to translating real estate ads, a pleasant outlook is clearly subjective to the writer not the reader and if I hear 'packed powder' one more time....

NZ Ski, as big a culprit to the subjective snow report as any of the big ski resort players, has taken a calculated risk this season and offered free wifi at The Remarkables and Coronet Peak. Great for the Australian market they rely on who can now spread the social message for them (good and bad) in real time.

Australian resorts now need to up the free public wifi ante in response. Though just getting decent mobile phone reception in our alpine regions would be a start. But that’s a matter for Senator Conroy and far be it for Snow It All to enter the copper debate.

However you access your social media accounts, there are a number of tweeters worth following if you want real time snow reports, images and videos from the ground in Australia and New Zealand.

Most of those tweeting will also link to their own instagram pics, YouTube and Vimeo channels so you can see what is really going on and cut out the resort marketing middle man. A win for those in the snow. Try following any of these industry and independent snowcialites.

Mountainwatch - @mountainwatch1 for snow reports and web cams from the founders of Coastalwatch

Some of my favourite instagrammers in Australia and New Zealand include professional photographers who live at the resorts. Try @marktsukasov for Hotham images, @camillastoddart for the South Island of New Zealand and snowboarder @danhimbrechts who spends some time in both Australia and New Zealand each winter. Also follow @skiclubofvictoria and cinematographer Rob Norman @stillnothere who are both proactive with instagram posts.

Our Instagram2Win competition is running again in 2013 throughout the season. Simply tag your instagrams #misssnowitall to be in the running for some fantastic prizes and the chance for your pic to be published online. Watch this space for more details when we launch prizes next week and start publishing readers images.